FAA OKs first commercial drone flights over land -- for BP, in Alaska

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Photos:The many uses of drones

An MQ-9 Reaper, armed with laser-guided munitions and Hellfire missiles, flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. The Reaper has been in use since 2007.

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Photos:The many uses of drones

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use a hexacopter -- a six-winged camera-loaded drone -- to monitor whales off the coast of New England in July. Acquired under National Marine Fisheries Service Permit 17355-01 and NOAA Class G flight authorization 2015-ESA-4-NOAA; Photo by John Durban, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NMFS, NOAA; and Michael Moore, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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Photos:The many uses of drones

An AeroVironment Puma drone undergoes pre-flight tests in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on June 7, 2014. The drone will be used to survey roads, pipelines and other equipment at the largest oil field in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration authorized BP to conduct the first-ever commercial drone flights over land.

Members of the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office fly their search-and-rescue drone during a demonstration in Brigham City, Utah, on February 13, 2014. Gov. Gary Hebert has approved the state's first drone restrictions, setting new limits on law enforcement's use of the technology.

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Christopher Brown of the Next New Homes Group uses a drone to take aerial video of a home in Sacramento, California, on February 25, 2014. Drones are increasingly being used by small companies to shoot promotional videos.

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A researcher at the University of California, Davis, removes sprayer containers from a drone after a crop dusting test flight in Arbuckle, California, on February 5, 2014. UC Davis is testing the use of unmanned helicopters for agriculture. The FAA does not currently allow pesticide spraying from drones in the United States.

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A drone delivers medicine from a nearby pharmacy to the Deutsche Post headquarters in Bonn, Germany, on December 9, 2013. The company was testing the viability of using drones to deliver small packages over short distances. Online retailer Amazon has also announced plans to start using unmanned flying vehicles.

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A drone designed to capture footage of illegal hunting activities lands after taking footage at Erwin Wilder Wildlife Management Area in Norton, Massachusetts, on October 21, 2013.

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A NASA Global Hawk drone sits in an airplane hangar during a Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3, mission at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, on September 10, 2013. The HS3 mission uses two of the unmanned aircraft to fly over tropical storms and hurricanes to monitor weather conditions.

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Luis Jaime Castillo, a Peruvian archaeologist, uses a drone to take pictures of the archaeological site of San Jose de Moro in Trujillo on July 18, 2013. In Peru, home to Machu Picchu and thousands of ancient ruins, archaeologists are turning to drones to speed up sluggish survey work and protect sites from squatters, builders and miners.

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A drone fitted with a film camera shoots aerial footage during the production of the film "The Girl with the Indian Emerald" in Jaipur, India, on November 7, 2012. While it's already being done in other countries, the U.S. government is considering a request from movie and TV producers to let them use unmanned aircraft to shoot aerial video.

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A man controls an Parrot AR Drone with an iPad during the press preview day of the International Toy Fair in Nuernberg, Germany, on February 2, 2011.

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Derek Charlton of the Merseyside Police operates the department's new aerial surveillance drone in Liverpool, England, on May 21, 2007.

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U.S. Marine Sgt. Nicholas Bender launches a Raven surveillance drone from Marine base near the remote village of Baqwa, Afghanistan, on March 21, 2009. Marines use the unmanned aerial vehicles to get real-time intelligence on Taliban movements.

Story highlights

The drone's flight was the first such commercial flight approved over land

Last summer, the FAA authorized drone flights over Arctic waters

The FAA is seeking to safely integrate drones into national airspace

A drone that just started flying for energy giant BP in Alaska is the first commercial drone operation authorized over land by the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency announced Tuesday.

The FAA said Tuesday it approved BP's plan for an unmanned aircraft system to survey roads, pipelines and other equipment at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the largest oilfield in the United States.

The drone's manufacturer, AeroVironment, conducted its first flight for BP on Sunday, the FAA said, but the flight of the 4½-foot-long aircraft wasn't disclosed by the FAA until Tuesday morning.

It was the first such commercial flight authorized over land. Last summer, the FAA authorized drone flights over Arctic waters.

The FAA has greatly restricted the commercial use of drones over U.S. land and water as it seeks to safely integrate them into national airspace. Entities that fly drones must first get certificates of authorization, and those have gone chiefly to government enterprises and those conducting research.

Under AeroVironment's certificate, the company can operate only in daytime, where there is a visibility of 3 miles, and the aircraft must be kept in sight. The company must also notify air traffic controllers.

Last week, the FAA announced that Nevada will host the third of six congressionally mandated drone research sites. The FAA granted the Nevada team a two-year certificate to use an Insitu ScanEagle at the Desert Rock Airport in Mercury, Nevada. Desert Rock, owned and operated by the Department of Energy, is a private airport and not for general use.

Meanwhile, seven aerial photo and video production companies have asked for regulatory exemptions that would allow the film and television industries to use unmanned aircraft systems with FAA approval for the first time. The Motion Picture Association of America facilitated the exemption requests on behalf of its membership.